Kolkata Knight Riders hardly put a foot wrong when they started their campaign in IPL IXV with a 10-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in Chennai today.
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00:00In the end, they came back well, SRH, but Dinesh Karthik finished off well.
00:14Hello, wishing you all a very good evening. This is Gautam of Gulf News. We are kicking off our
00:21Straight Bad series, the third part of which with Gulf News and our Mr. Anish Sarjan, our special
00:27guest, who is the Mr. Cricket, UAE. Obviously, we are going to talk about today's match, where
00:35what I thought was, you see the jersey that I'm wearing, the KKR shirt and I'm proud to be
00:40wearing this one today, because they hardly put a foot wrong today, very clinical performance,
00:45I would like to say. And I'll come back to Anish, what do you think, how did the match pan out?
00:53Honestly, you know, at the toss, I had that feeling that KKR would find it difficult because of the
01:01variety of Rashid Khan, Nabi, as well as the other SRH bowlers. But the innings of Nitish Rana
01:09with the other player, I can't remember his name at the moment. Varun, no, not what is his name?
01:16And Subman Gill. No, Subman Gill
01:21actually was quite slow, but the guy who came... Rahul Tripathi. Rahul Tripathi.
01:26Yeah, whatever experiments... Rahul Tripathi gave them that good kickstart. And in the end, they came back well,
01:33SRH, but Dinesh Karthik finished off well. Right. Well, I mean, that's what this KKR, if you look
01:42at their campaign last year and is buying, you will see that they were trying too many experiments
01:46there. This is the first time they got a 50 partnership in a while. So they got a left-hand,
01:53right-hand combination all right when they brought in, Ditesh Rana used to bat at number three.
01:58All they had to do was just promote him up and Shubman is your opener. So that worked for them.
02:03But at the same time, when Sunrisers Hyderabad, they were replying. Last year also, I noticed
02:10that they were found wanting in the middle order. What do you think about it? I mean,
02:15do you think they can't find room to play Kane Williamson, somebody like him is sitting in the
02:20dugout? I am totally with you, Gautam. Kane Williamson is one of that player who can control
02:27the innings. I have no idea why they think that his strike rate is low, whereas he is one of the
02:32players who's got even a better strike rate when it comes to playing T20 than the big guys like
02:37Stephen Smith, Virat Kohli. And as I said, he controls the innings. And the problem with them
02:43is that they are taking Naby because they feel that he can add value with the ball. But you need
02:47to have a specialist. Naby is a guy who can give you that three overs or four overs in one particular
02:53match, but he will not be consistent with the bat. But whereas with Williamson, he's assured
02:57that out of 10 innings, he will give you runs in 18. So there is a kind of template which
03:05seems to be working here. I mean, if you look at KKR, I mean, there were three spinners today
03:12and Harbhajan Singh, I mean, he is coming back, I heard a piece of statistics. He is playing,
03:18he had been playing a competitive match after 699 days. And, you know, he obviously didn't
03:25bowl his quota. So what do you think about him? I mean, obviously, it's a class act.
03:29But at 40 years, what kind of an impact do you think he's going to make overall?
03:35Honestly, you know, I'm not sure whether he's going to play all the games. The reason to play
03:40him is that he had a decent record against David Warner. And he almost got him in the first over
03:44today when Cummins dropped him. But with the variety of attack what KKR has, I am not sure
03:52whether Harbhajan can play. But yes, he has a point to prove to CSK who did not select him and
03:56let him go. And he's got a lot of experience. Mind you, he's one player who's been playing the
04:03IPL for ages, and experience is always better than knowledge. That's what they say. Coming back
04:10to the KKR bowling attack, you know, the likes of Cummins, Trey Russell, Prasit Krishna, and the
04:17wonder boy, Varun Chakravorty. This is one boy I'm very fond of. And I somehow feel he's going
04:23to make the cut for the Indian team if his fitness is good. Right. What is that special thing about
04:30Varun Chakravorty, Anish Bhai? I mean, see, we use the term mystery spinner very loosely these days.
04:37But last year in the UAE, he was spot on. He came and I think he finished over more than 25 wickets.
04:43So what is the special thing that he does? When you say mystery spinner, you know, you can't
04:48read him off the hand because he can hold the doosra or he can get the straighter one in.
04:53And if you must have realized, last year also people were not able to read him.
04:56And today, he must have gone for 36 runs. But his overs were good. A couple of short
05:02balls went for sixes. And you know, once you can't read a bowler, he's difficult to get off.
05:08If you remember the guys like Ajanta Mendes when they were new, or the Kuldeep Ziago, they were new.
05:13You can't read them off the hand. And that is one advantage this guy has, that he can take the ball
05:17away as well as he can bring the ball in. And he's fast like Rashid Khan, mind you. So one advantage
05:22of Rashid Khan and Varun Chakravorty is that they are quick. They do not give you enough time to go
05:28and hit them out of the path. Well, coming back a little to the KKR batting, they did so well today.
05:37You know, this is the specialty about IPL. You always had somebody like Nitish Rana coming
05:43in at number three. He was good in patches for KKR, he served them well. But you promote him,
05:49he finds his sweet spot. And he was simply amazing today. Same with Rahul Tripathi,
05:55you tried him as a makeshift opener last year, because Sunil Narine kept on failing.
06:02He was brought in at his rightful spot at number three. And he was playing perfect
06:06cricketing shots all around the weekend. So do think this is the beauty of IPL. I mean,
06:11in the first match, we spoke of somebody like Harshal Patel, who will probably never play for
06:16India. Today, we are talking about Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathi. So where do these guys come
06:24from? And such uninhibited stroke-making? What do you make of this?
06:31See, the advantage what this guy is like, Nitish Rana, and if you spoke about Rahul Tripathi,
06:35especially Nitish Rana has been playing IPL cricket for a long time, as well as the domestic
06:41experience, what they garner, which the other countries don't get. That is one of the biggest
06:47strengths. And now when they rub shoulders with the big boys in the IPL, automatically it shows
06:53in their form. So that's why the talent in India is abundant. Be it Surya Kumar Yadav or the pocket
06:59dynamo Kishan. And now you talk about Nitish Rana. So you see, you ask one, you have four choices.
07:06So we are spoiled for choices. It's all about temperament. Who has that temperament will go
07:12a long way.
07:15So do you think it's the kind of end of the road for Sunil Narine in the KKL lineup,
07:20now that they've managed to sort out their batting lineup, as well as bowling lineup?
07:25You can say to some extent, you see, because they also have left out Ferguson today,
07:30who is also very handy with the ball. If they have to have a mystery spinner in Varun Chakravorty,
07:35I don't see any reason for them to play Sunil Narine. Because they are definitely going to play
07:40the X Factor, Dre Russ. They have Owen Morgan, they have Pat Cummins. So you have to leave him out
07:46as Sunil Narine will be finding it very, very difficult to get a place this time around.
07:52And looking ahead, looking at the road ahead for Sunrisers, what do you think would be an
07:58ideal combination for them? We spoke about Ken Williamson and Ben. What do you think they need
08:04to do to bolster that middle order? They need to definitely get this boy Abdul Samad up the order.
08:10If you saw him, he hit Pat Cummins for two sixes. And last year also he scored some glimpses.
08:15What they lack is firepower in the middle. If you see guys like Williamson, Manish Pandey,
08:21they are all one type of players. So if they lose Bairstow and Warner, who give them quick
08:26runs at the start, they don't have that firepower to finish. They need somebody in the end to finish
08:32the innings off. Like today, if you see, they were in the game till almost the 15th over. But
08:37you always felt that they are little behind the game. They were there, but they were not in.
08:42If some other team like the Mumbai Indians would have finished off this game.
08:46Yeah, looks like it. There was a mini scare when Samad started hitting those sixes.
08:53And before wrapping up, I just like to look ahead at the match. I mean,
08:58tomorrow's match, which is Punjab Kings versus Rajasthan Royals. Now, these two
09:05often underachievers, but both teams have, you know, marshaled their resources well again.
09:11So what are you expecting from this match? And whom do you consider as favourites?
09:16Both are level teams. If you see, one has won the tournament right at the beginning,
09:20and then they came last, last year, whereas Punjab has been on and off. Last year, if you see,
09:26they lost very close games. Rahul used to score the runs, but I'm afraid did not have the temperament
09:31to finish the games. Now, again, I'll use the word temperament. Temperament is always very
09:36important in any sport, whether you play Test cricket, whether you play ODI cricket, whether
09:41you play 2020. And you could see that fear in Rahul's mind that if he gets out, who will finish
09:45the game? So he has to play that free attacking game and give the others the opportunities like
09:51the Chris Gayles and the Mayank Agarwals that go and express yourself. And if he plays that
09:57same attacking style, which he does for India, okay, he can have a good T20 series against
10:02England. But the secret for Punjab to go at is that Rahul has to play and express himself and
10:07not play the anchor wins. Well, I mean, these are still early days. Tomorrow, we'll see
10:14the first round of games where all eight teams would have played one-one match each.
10:20There's lots and lots of cricket to be played. Follow this year's IPL at the straight back
10:27at our social media channels, and of course, at gulfnews.com. Thank you and good night.
10:33Good night. Good night. Take care, guys.